Aunt Barbara

I was working on a different post for this week, but I don’t think it would be appropriate now. I’ll put it up later in the month.

Barbara Sue Snyder Rainey (1934-2015)

Barbara Sue Snyder Rainey (1934-2015)
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My Aunt Barbara, my mother’s sister, died last Sunday, and was buried yesterday. She was very ill and this is what she wanted. Her family, her children, and her sisters miss her terribly, as do her students. I feel, well, odd. I do miss her, but after I grew up and got out on my own I didn’t have a lot of contact with her. Then she, and I, joined Facebook, and friended one another, and, while we still didn’t interact whole lot, I saw what was happening in her life, and she in mine, and we “liked” each other’s pictures, and occasionally commented, and there is an “Aunt Barbara”-shaped hole in my life now. But what I’m seeing, in the outpouring of grief at her passing, is that I missed a whole lot in not knowing her better.

When I started my family research, I reached out to my aunts and uncles on both sides of the family with a series of questions about their families (the one they grew up in and the one they created), and their own lives, but this is where it does the family or at least individual members of the family, a disservice to have the one doing the family history be an overworked, insomniac introvert. Some family members responded with a lot of information, some responded with a little information, and some didn’t respond at all, and when they responded a little or not at all, I didn’t push it. I did still do online research on them (census, directories, newspapers – I thought I had more time), but perhaps I should’ve thought of different ways to contact them or tried to ask different questions for their perspective. I haven’t. And, in at least one case, now it is too late. Siblings and children and friends never have the same interpretation or understanding of your life that you do. [In my career I have found that no two or more people will have the same recollection or interpretation of any given event, or person, as we all see life through the lenses of our own personal history and emotions; and if the witnesses testifying before me do all have the same exact recollection of an event, it didn’t happen that way (collusion after the fact).] 

I can’t do a bio piece on Aunt Barbara the same way I have done with my ancestors, as much of her life is wrapped up with people who are still alive, and I won’t name people who are still alive in my blog, other than as a title. But in seeing the outpouring of love and respect in the past week, I did want to try to capture a bit of the Barbara I knew and wish I knew better.

Mabel LeRe Erwin Snyder and her girls
(Barbara is to the right of the girl in yellow)
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By way of a bit of background, Barbara Sue Snyder Rainey was born in Findlay, Ohio, on July 21, 1934, to Mabel LeRe Erwin and Clarence Weldon Snyder, both age 24. Her father was a teacher. Both of her parents’ families were largely from Findlay, Ohio, and/or Hancock County, Ohio, but Barbara was born at the height of the Great Depression when it was very difficult to find work to support one’s family, and if work was available you moved where it was. By 1935, the family had moved to Jewett, Ohio, in Harrison County, where her father taught science in the high school. Within the next five years, Barbara acquired three younger sisters, and later another sister and a brother. As the country was ramping up to join to World War II, the family moved to Huron, Ohio where her father worked in one of the nearby defense industries; Barbara was eight. After the war, her father became a traveling toy salesman. The family remained in Huron until Clarence retired. Barbara attended most of her school years in the Huron schools and graduated from Huron High School.

Barbara Sue (Snyder) Rainey on her wedding day
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After graduating from high school she attended Heidelberg College (now University) in Tiffin Ohio, where she majored in music, was a member of the famed Heidelberg choir, the Hesperian Literary Society, Triad Club, and the Ohio Music Educators Association. She also participated as a soprano soloist in frequent radio and TV engagements. 

While at Heidelberg, she met and fell in love with the man who was to become her husband, who also performed with the Heidelberg choir. They married on August 28, 1954, in a beautiful ceremony (the newspaper described lovely gowns for Barbara, her maid of honor, bridesmaids, and flower girls, all of which, according to my mom, were made by her mother who was a skilled seamstress) and after a honeymoon to Michigan and Canada, the bridegroom moved to St. Louis, Missouri to attend Eden Seminary, and Barbara remained in Huron, living with her parents, while she taught sixth grade in the Vermillion OH schools. Two children were born by 1958, when the couple moved in 1958 to in Elgin Illinois, where her husband had his first pastorate. By 1962, they had moved to Toledo, Ohio, where a third child was born and her husband had obtained a new pastorate where Barbara became active in the music program, and taught in the Toledo schools. According to her obituary, during her career she taught at Shoreland Elementary, Whitmer High School, Regina Coeli and St. Stevens, in Toledo, Ohio.  She was the choir director at Point Place United Church of Christ, Lambertville United Methodist, Hampton Park Christian Church and New Hope United Methodist Church. Additionally, she directed plays at the Westgate Dinner Theater and the Toledo Music Theatre and sang with the Toledo Symphony Chorale.

Barbara performed as a soloist in 'The Messiah' in 1970 (her picture is on the left)
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Rehearsing for an Ecumenical Program in 1971, Barbara is in the middle
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Barbara's production of Jesus Christ Superstar was booked to play the Toledo Masonic Auditorium in 1974,
marking the first time a professional producer booked a production by an amateur company
into the Masonic Auditorium, a 2,424 seat concert hall in Toledo, Ohio.
"Shaw felt the quality of the show and the favorable public response were such that it merited wider exposure."
(I saw it there when I was 14. The hall was packed! And the show was amazing.)
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In the 1980s, she lost her father and her marriage ended in divorce. In the 1990s, she lost her mother and her brother. She continued to be well-known as a musical director in her community and her church, and interviewed as a respected source by the Toledo Blade Religion Editor to contribute to an article on Cantatas and music as a Christmas spiritual tradition. 

Barbara quoted extensively in last third of article, in 1997
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In 2007, she officially retired at the urging of her children but stayed active in music and as a grandmother. After a series of health problems, she died July 5, 2015, at the age of 80.

Those are the cold foundational facts, but my Aunt Barbara wasn’t your usual person, as I have seen from the outpouring of love and honor from her students in the past week, posting tributes on her Facebook page and the message section on the online obituaries. So very, very many students, from multiple decades remember her as the person who gave them the guidance and the support to find their confidence and be themselves. They described her chorus class as the one class they looked forward to all day or remembered her guidance in theater productions. Others remembered her as their piano teacher after school or on the weekend. She had a significant positive impact on the lives of many, many people. How many people can say that?

The Washington Local Schools upon learning of her death posted this on their Facebook page:

“Long-time Washington Local teacher, Barb Rainey, has passed away. Barb taught at WLS from 1969 to 1994 and was the choir and show choir teacher at Whitmer for several years. She received many accolades for her accomplishments and for the awards that the students won. Barb spent many spring breaks traveling with her students to Canada, Florida and other places to perform—the groups often won 1st and 2nd place for their performances. She loved her students, was a second mother to them and kept in touch with many of them after graduation and into adulthood. Barb was a very special person who loved kids and helped so many in their life journey. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.” Following the post there are many lovely comments describing her as a great or awesome teacher.

Her obituary, written by one of her children, published in the Toledo Blade, was wonderful! Per my blog policy, I don’t name living people so I have edited the obituary to delete references to the living, which means we lose most of the first paragraph:

“Not your ordinary obituary. Most obituaries start in pretty much the same way, this one will be no different. Barbara S. Rainey passed away peacefully at St. Luke's Hospital on July 5th, 2015 surrounded by family. She was preceded in death by Parents Clarence W. and Mabel L. Snyder, Brother John & Johanna Snyder (Sister-in-law) and Michael Miller (grandson). She is survived by [4 children] ... [11 grandchildren] ...[great-grandchildren, and her 4 sisters] . Barbara spent most of her school years in Huron, Ohio, graduating from Huron High School. She was also a proud graduate of Heidelberg University and The University of Toledo. After graduation, she went on to marry, have children and teach at Shoreland Elementary, Whitmer High School, Regina Coeli and St. Stevens. Barb, was the choir director at Point Place United Church of Christ, Lambertville United Methodist, Hampton Park Christian Church and New Hope United Methodist Church. All before her children imposed a mandatory retirement 2007.

"Now, remember we said at the start that this was no ordinary obituary. You see, Barb, Mrs. Rainey, Mrs. R or Mom, as she was known, had an undeniable love and passion for her students. If she wasn't helping them excel both on and off stage, she was shuttling a van load of them to a "must see" show. Whether you needed help with upcoming contests, auditions, Spanish homework or just her world famous "life advice"? There was Mrs. R. She might not approve; but she'd deal with that later. "Barbs kids", believed they could do the impossible and with her guidance, they usually did. She took an odd little show called the "Whitmer Circus" and turned it into must see "Extravaganza", "Varsity Swing Chorale" became "FanFare". She directed the 1st off Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar and The Fantastics right here in Toledo. Barb was a fixture in the early days of the Westgate Dinner Theater, Sang with the Symphony Chorale, created the Toledo Music Theatre; she even did a stint with the New Bedford singers. She used her unimaginable talents to produce and direct mesmerizing High School musicals and community productions, laying the groundwork for many more years of "remember when(s)" to come. All the while molding performers and non-performers alike.

"So, now you see why this couldn't be any ordinary obituary; she was certainly no ordinary lady. As her family, we got to share this extraordinary woman with the world and we couldn't be more honored. To us, there will always be a little bit of her in everyone she touched along the way. There will never be another.

"Friends are invited to visit after 10:00am Saturday July 11th 2015 at Ansberg-West Funeral Home, 3000 W Sylvania Ave, Toledo, OH 43613 where services will commence at 1:00pm. With mom's love of the arts, the family is asking that in lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to a fine arts organization of your choice. A few suggestions: The Stranahan Theater & Great Hall, Toledo School for the Arts, The Toledo Jazz Society or any other organization in your area. You may also want to consider a lighthouse preservation project in your area.”

Rest in peace, Aunt Barbara.

I love this picture of her! 

______________

(For more complete citations contact me)

Ohio Birth Index; 1940 U.S. Census, Sandusky Register Star News, 23 July 1954, p. 8 (found at newspaperarchive.com); Sandusky Register Star News, 4 September 1954, page 5 (found at newspaperarchive.com); The Toledo Blade, 24 August 1962, p4 (found in Google newspaper archives); Toledo Blade, May 6, 1970, p 23 (found in Google newspaper archives); Sandusky Register, 12 December 1970, p. 2 (found in Google newspaper archives); The Toledo Blade, Saturday, April 3, 1971, p 13; caption to picture in upper right corner (found in Google newspaper archives); The Toledo Blade, 5 September 1974, P-2 (found in Google newspaper archives); Findlay Republican Courier, 30 September 1974, p. 22 (found in Google newspaper archives); Toledo Blade, 16 May 1979, p 17 (found in Google newspaper archives); The Toledo Blade, 26 March 1981, p7 (found in Google newspaper archives); The Toledo Blade, 13 December 1997, p 20 (found in Google newspaper archives); Elgin Illinois City Directories for 1958 and 1959, Washington Local Schools, Toledo Ohio, Facebook Post, July 6, 2015; Obituary, Published in the Toledo Blade on July 10, 2015, (found at http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/toledoblade/obituary.aspx?n=barbara-rainey&pid=175257409&)

52 Ancestors - #20 Clarence W. Snyder (1910 – 1984)

Clarence Snyder at 17
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This is my 20th post for the “52Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge initiated by Amy Johnson Crow of the “No Story Too Small” blog.

I love the kindness and generosity of genea-bloggers. Dara McGivern of Black Raven Genealogy found my grandparents’ marriage license and sent me a link to it and now I have a digital copy, which I will share below [it’s an interesting one ;-) ] Thank you Dara!

My grandfather, Clarence Weldon Snyder was born on March 22, 1910 to Philip Snyder and Pearl Pauline Bailey Snyder. His parents had been married almost exactly one year and he was their first child.  At the time of his birth, his father worked in the timber business in Findlay, Ohio. They went on to have two daughters and two more sons: Christina Belle (1911-1942) [link], Phyllis Ardyeth (1914- 2005), Paul Alexander (1915 – 1975), and Donald (1918-2012) [link].

Grandpa Snyder, Clarence, made the paper less frequently than my Grandma Snyder (Mabel) did, and although I know there was one I have been unable to find a copy of his obituary, so I have less documented on him than I have on my grandmother. But I did find his and Mabel’s 1927 high school year book on Ancestry.com, and that was cool!

My grandmother and grandfather knew each other in high school and dated.  My grandfather, Clarence Snyder, played football his junior and senior years and was the captain of the football team his senior year.  He also played on the basketball team. He was secretary and treasurer of the Varsity Club and a member of the Senior Hi-Y Club (which was a club that promoted “clean speech, clean sport, clean scholarship and clean living throughout the school and community.”). He was also president of the Student Council during his senior year [which gifted him with the task of organizing class reunions from then on].  

Captain of his High School Football Team
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At college, Ohio University, he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity which was focused on creating “a lifelong commitment to strive to achieve true friendship, equal justice and the fulfillment of learning as part of our overall responsibilities to the broader communities in which we live.”   Here’s a neat fact: he played center on the last Ohio University football team to beat Ohio State University! (OSU then refused to schedule any other Ohio colleges for many years – talk about sour grapes!)

Clarence and Mabel secretly got married while Clarence was still in college, on January 5, 1929, in Crawford County Ohio by a minister in Bucyrus Ohio; then she returned to her home with her mother and sister and he continued with college, until he graduated and they could be together. The interesting part about the marriage license application is that they both lied about their ages – he said he was 22 and she said she was 21 (they were both 18), and she may have lied about her residence, as she reports that she is living in Crestline in Crawford County Ohio (a small town between Bucyrus and Mansfield, Ohio) and I have nothing else placing her there – but it may be that I have nothing else placing her there yet.  I know that it is my grandparents’ license because  its states the groom was born in Findlay Ohio and his  parents of the groom are as P.A. Snyder (Philip Aaron) and Pauline Bailey, and the bride was born in “Lewisville” Illinois and her parents are Verne Erwin and Frances Hartman. I don’t know why they lied about their ages, even at 18 they were above the legal marriageable age in Ohio at that time.  For those relatives concerned with whether the lies voided the marriage, likely not. [My first legal job was for the Legal Aid Society of Dayton Ohio, in the Domestic Relations unit. It’s been awhile so I double-checked my recollection to the extent I could (this is not to be considered legal advice). ] Lying about one’s age on the Marriage License Application is not considered to be lying about a material fact since they were of legal age anyway and would thus not void the marriage. Likewise, lying about one’s place of residence – if she did – is also not considered to be a material fact and would not void the marriage. Moreover, assuming arguendo that it did, Ohio recognized common law marriage until 1993 and they fit the Ohio requirements for that (mutual consent to be married; mutual intent to marry; consider themselves as husband and wife; be legally capable of entering into a valid marriage; cohabit and hold themselves to the public as husband and wife). So either way, the marriage is legal and my mother and her siblings are legitimate.

Clarence Snyder & Mabel Erwin Application for  Marriage License and Marriage Certificate
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By 1933, Mabel and Clarence were living together as man and wife in Findlay Ohio, at 301 E. Main Cross Street, and he was working as a teacher.  He taught Chemistry and Physics.  Their first child was born to them the next year in Findlay. (Note, I will not be giving names or exact birthdates as the children are living.)  In 1935, the couple lived in Jewett, Ohio, in Harrison County, where he taught Chemistry and Physics, coached football and basketball , and was promoted to Principal. They had four children in six years and then nearly a decade later another two children.

When Clarence and Mabel started their family it was at the height of the Great Depression, when it was extremely difficult to find work and provide for one’s family.  In 1932, Ohio's unemployment rate for all residents reached 37%; and those who retained their jobs usually faced reduced hours and wages.  Many people couldn’t afford to pay their property taxes and so school districts were underfunded. Many teachers had their salaries cut, and there was no money for supplies. Many schools cut both the school day and the school year; some simply closed. It was a rough time to be in education. I don’t know whether he lost his job or left it but by 1939 the family was living in St. Clairsville, Ohio and Clarence was a salesman at a car dealership. This was also an awful job to have in the Depression because automobiles were still a luxury item and people weren’t buying luxury goods then. But Clarence took the jobs he could find to try to support his growing family.  Grandpa supplemented the family table by hunting and fishing; and when she was old enough ,my mother would go hunting with him. She remembers eating squirrel stew at times.

As WWII spread across Europe in 1939 and 1940, the U.S. government and military began to lay a infrastructure to support the war, building 67 ordnance factories across the country (on approximately 44 million acres of land taken by eminent domain from private citizens), and recruiting workers to staff them. Recruiters especially sought those with science backgrounds. The jobs were to be temporary, for the duration of the war, but they were attractive because they were secure and meant a steady paycheck for the duration; they were patriotic; and since they were deemed “essential”, a person working there would not be sent overseas to fight.  Due to his chemistry and physics coursework in college, Clarence was offered a choice between working at the Plum Brook munitions/TNT plant about 5 miles south of  Sandusky, Ohio or at the Atomic Bomb project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Mabel objected to the primitive conditions at Oak Ridge, so they took the Plum Brook job and moved to Huron Ohio, on Lake Erie. Plumbrook’s first production line of TNT started on November 15, 1941 – 22 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor (Plumbrook eventually produced more than one billion pounds of ordnance throughout World War II -- over 400,000 pounds per day).

Even though it was steady, necessary work, it was not an easy place to work. A history of Plum Brook put together by NASA noted that since the buildings were considered temporary, they weren't insulated sufficiently for the cold Ohio winters, and workers worked in their heaviest coats as “icy blasts tore through the warped window casings,” and managers regularly had to brush snow off their desks. Plum Brook employees were also subject to strict conservation and rationing for the war, and were strongly encouraged to set aside 10% of their pay to buy war bonds. They saved gas by carpooling or biking to work (even in the winter).  Many families planted “Victory gardens” to supplement their food  needs as the federal government imposed rationing on the American people to limit the amount of scarce goods civilians could purchase (so more could be sent overseas), starting in the spring of 1942, the rationing eventually came to include sugar, meats, butter, oils, cheese, juices, dry beans, soups, baby food, ketchup, and bottled, canned, and frozen fruits and vegetables. Clarence and Mabel maintained a garden , and Clarence continued to go hunting and fishing for the family table.

In September 1942, Clarence’s sister Christina died in a car crash that also severely injured her husband. Directly after the accident, Clarence and Mabel took in one of Christina’s daughters, intending to raise her as their own, but the father’s family asked to take care of her pending her father’s recovery, and the girl was sent to Florida to live with them instead.

Also late in 1942, Clarence’s brother, Don, who was in the Army, was sent off to the Pacific Theatre to fight the Japanese. So at this time, Clarence was working in very difficult conditions, trying to support his wife and four daughters, grieving the death of his sister and fearful for the safety of his youngest brother. The stress load must have been enormous. But many at Plum Brook and around the country were suffering similar stresses and so they weren’t ever talked about. After the surrender of Japan, production at Plum Brook came to a halt.

Clarence W. Snyder, 1943
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After the war, in the late 40’s and throughout the 1950’s, the family’s economic station improved. Clarence became a manufacturer’s representative for a variety of toy and sporting goods companies, going around to retail stores and chains in his territory and convincing their buyers to purchase his clients' products. Mabel kept the books for Clarence’s business, utilizing her accounting degree. As the economy as a whole improved, people were more willing to spend money on frivolous items, and as the soldiers and sailors came home the baby boom followed, and Clarence benefitted by both.  Although you have to wonder how his family felt as he travelled a lot for his job and, at times, was gone for a month at a time. Clarence established a tradition of taking each of his kids, in turn, with him, at least once, on a trip to Detroit, so they could see a big city.  

In 1958, their youngest daughter, at age 12, had to have spinal fusion surgery that required eight months thereafter in a body cast. While she was in the hospital, Clarence and Mabel had the carport converted into a room to hold a hospital bed so that she could be cared for at home.  As Clarence did not have insurance, expense of the surgery and other medical care was paid for in cash. Later, his son needed ear surgery while in college.

All of Clarence and Mabel’s kids worked and saved money towards their college education – I think it is admirable that Clarence and Mabel fostered a family mindset that said, of course, their daughters and son would go to college (that still wasn't normal for girls) but were honest and let them know that they must earn money to help pay for college because they couldn't pay for college for six kids alone.  I also understand that Grandpa had a standing, partially facetious, offer to give any daughter who eloped $1000 [the equivalent of $6929 now] - none of them took him up on that (I think Grandma would have been very upset if they had, even though she had eloped).

Later after his older girls got married and began having families, I would say that us grandkids loved his job as a toy salesman because he would give us his samples; he gave us some of the biggest and best stuffed animals, dolls, stuffed football player dolls, and fascinating board games! I loved my stuffed animals.

Me, Grandpa, and a cousin
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In Huron, Ohio, Clarence was active in his local Presbyterian Church and served as a deacon several times. He was also active in the Freemasons, and was elected Commodore of the local yacht club multiple times (he had a yacht named “Our Toy”, which won an award for being the “prettiest” in a regatta in 1964). He was also President of their home owners associations at Grand Forest Beach and later Beach Wood Cove, helping to insure that the city put drainage ditches and sidewalks in the neighborhoods.

My grandfather had a daredevil streak in him. I have heard stories of him swimming across the Sandusky Bay  of Lake Erie to get a package of hamburger and swimming back holding it above his head, out of the water; he also swam across the Hocking River while in college; he would ride a bicycle on the pier so close to the edge that his children were afraid that he would fall in, and then he would repeat it – riding backwards.  Once he picked up hitchhikers who pulled a gun on him, then hit him with it and knocked him out. I remember riding with him in a car that was going so fast on the hills that we went airborn in our seats as we crested the hills – I also remember my brothers excitedly telling Mom about it when we got back to the Camp…Mom was not amused, and told him off! I don’t think we were allowed to ride with him again.

In or about 1969, when I was about 9, Clarence & Mabel retired to Yankeetown Florida, where they bought a house near the Withlacoochee River, on one of the inland waterways, a canal. I remember going to visit them several times. I have a vivid memory of an alligator crawling out of the canal into the backyard.  I don’t know if that happened more than once, but once was enough for me!  After retirement to Florida, Clarence got restless and purchased and operated a 7/11 store there. I have vague memories of the store. He was an active member of the Parson’s Memorial Presbyterian Church and loved singing in the choir. He was also a member of the Masons, and liked to play golf with Mabel and with male friends, including his brother, who lived in the area.

Unfortunately, Mabel developed dementia in her later years. After awhile it got to the point that Clarence could not care for her at home and he moved her to the Crystal River Geriatrics Center in about 1982. Clarence died about two years later of  leukemia. His body was returned to Findlay Ohio and buried in the Maple Grove cemetery. Mabel was buried beside him after her death in 1990.

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I would like to find more documentation/pictures of his years between 1940 and 1982.

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U.S. Census for 1920, 1930, 1940; The Findlay City Directory; The Findlay Republican Courier; The Sandusky Register; http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Great_Depression?rec=500 ; “Education during the great Depression” by Barb Jensen (http://voices.yahoo.com/education-during-great-depression-823239.html); NASA’s Nuclear Frontier: The Plum Brook Reactor Facility, by Mark D. Bowles and Robert S. Arrighi . Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 33. August 2004 (http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4533/Plum%20Brook%20Complete.pdf); http://wiki.answers.com/Q/1000_in_1960_is_worth_what_today?#slide=2; Social Security Index; and Ohio Obituary Index. Also memories of myself, my parents, and my aunts.

52 Ancestors - #19 Mabel Erwin Snyder (1910 – 1990)

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This is my 19th post for the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”challenge initiated by Amy Johnson Crow of the “No Story Too Small” blog. I know many bloggers are doing stories about their mothers this week. My Mom is a very private person and would not be happy if I wrote about her life on my blog. So this week I'm writing about my Mom's Mom, my Grandma Snyder.

My grandmother, Mabel LeRe Erwin was born July 16, 1910 to newlyweds Fannie Hartman Hart (38) and Vernon Erwin (38)  in Louisville, Illinois, who had married in 1909. She was Vernon’s first child and Fannie’s sixth child. Fannie had been previously married to Orley Hart and was widowed by his death in 1905. Vernon and Fannie had another daughter, Dale Hart Erwin (1912- ??), two years later. Mabel’s half siblings were: Lester Dene Hart (1894-1981); Gladys Hart (1896-1902); Reed C. Hart (1898-1954); Verne Allen Hart (1900-1982); and Julia Ann Hart (1903-1978).

Fannie's and Vernon's marriage broke up when Mabel was approximately five years old and Vernon left, leaving Fannie to raise her children alone. By 1920, Fannie, Mabel, and Dale had moved to Hancock County, Ohio, where Fannie was raised and her extended family still lived. Fannie became a live-in housekeeper for a farmer and his elderly father and the girls lived with their mother on the farm.

As a young girl, Mabel was interested in the theatre. According to the October 28, 1921 Findlay Republican Courier, Mabel Erwin was one of  26 small girls chosen to  perform the part of the “Dream Kiddies”  in “Kathleen, “ a romantic musical comedy to be performed at the Majestic Theatre in Findlay, Ohio as a benefit for the America Legion on November 3 & 4, 1921. She would have been 11 at the time.

As a teenager, Mabel was very active in multiple clubs in town and in school. I get the impression that she was an extrovert (I am not an extrovert and looking at the list of mentions I unearthed in the Findlay Republican Courier makes me was want to hide  …with a book). At age 13, Mabel was mentioned as telling several jokes at a meeting of the “Buds of Promise”.  At age 14, she is written up on the women’s society page as attending the birthday party of Elizabeth Hartman (likely a relative, as Hartman was Fannie’s maiden name).  At age 15, she hosted her Sunday school class in her home on North Main Street for a St. Patrick’s Day party. At 16, in her junior year of high school, she performed as one of the lead actors in the Junior play, “Her Husband’s Wife;” performed in a Thanksgiving Program play as “Bob, the grocer’s boy”;  and  was very active in the “Justamere Club”  where she gave speeches on “America” in at least three meetings (the “justamere club” was an all woman club promoted in the late 1920’s by Laura Ingalls Wilder [wrote "Little House on the Prairie"]; the club was devoted to intellectual inquiry and current events and was described as “a self-improvement study group for women who wanted to do more than merely take care of their families and manage a household and go beyond socializing to cultivate their minds and increase their knowledge” in Ingalls' biography by John E. Miller).  

In her senior year of high school, when she was 17, she was part of the group that produced the High School Yearbook and was on one of the teams of students canvassing local businesses for donations in exchange for ads in the yearbook;  involved with the Mah-Kaw-Wee Camp Fire Girls and presented a talk on “Loyalty”; spoke on “honest Taxpaying” at a Senior Chapel Service; was a member of the Girl’s Reserves, a charity and social group that met at the high school; and was a member of the Debate Club, where she took the affirmative position in a debate on the subject “Resolved: That Findlay Adopt The City Manager Plan”.  And, perhaps most impressively to me, she did all this while maintaining grades of 90% or higher in all of her classes in all four years of high school, making the Honors “E” Class! My grandmother was a very smart girl with a lively mind when she was young.  Later she worked her way through college and obtained an accounting degree from Findlay College, where she also worked on the college yearbook. 

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My grandmother and grandfather knew each other in high school and dated.  My grandfather, Clarence Snyder, was the captain of the football team.  In the fall of their senior year, on the evening of October 15, 1927, Mabel and Clarence were riding in a car, driven by Donald Simpson, 18, of Findlay, Ohio, with two other couples (all three of the boys played on the football team), when the vehicle was involved in an collision with a freight train at the East Main Crossing of the New York Central Railroad.  The train was traveling at about 25 mph, and the car at about 10 mph; and the car hit the third freight car of the train.  All occupants were thrown from the car (this was before seat belts), and the car was totally demolished, but only the driver was seriously injured.  (He recovered.)

Perhaps this scare solidified my grandparents’ intentions to one another.  They became serious, and once while Clarence was at college at Ohio University (I get the impression that he may have graduated a year after she did but I’m not sure), they secretly got married, on January 5, 1929,  in Crawford County Ohio (they lied about their ages on the application, but would have been of legal age even if they hadn't); then she returned to her home with her mother and he continued with college, until he graduated and they could be together. [To see the Application for Marriage License and Marriage Certificate, see Clarence's story.]

The 1930 census shows Mabel, 20, living with her mother and younger sister at 425 Hardin Street and a bookkeeper for a garage. The 1931 city directory is a bit more detailed, showing Mabel as a bookkeeper for the Davison-Harrington Chevrolet Company.  By 1933, Mabel and Clarence were living together as man and wife in Findlay Ohio, at 301 E. Main Cross Street. Their first child was born to them the next year in Findlay. (Note, I will not be giving names or exact birth dates as the children are living.) They had four children in six years and then nearly a decade later, in the mid-1940’s, had another two children. Mabel became quite ill with amoebic dysentery for several years after the birth of her last child, which she and others caught in a hotel in the Midwest, and this adversely affected her ability to do much of anything as she lacked the energy as a result of being constantly sick. The girls cleaned the house while she slept at that time.

The girls are not being identified because they are living.
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Mabel and Clarence got married and started having children at the height of the Great Depression, when it was extremely difficult to find work and provide for one’s family; even those who were employed weren't paid much. Much of the country was on austerity measures just to get by, wearing clothes that were mended and re-mended, stretching food, and hunting to supply meat for the family meals, and based on family stories, and Mabel and Clarence did all of that and more.  Even so, the little family was lucky in that Clarence was employed.  

Mabel and Clarence first moved to Jewett in Harrison County, Ohio and then to St. Clairsville Ohio, and by 1942, the family, had moved to Huron, Ohio, when Clarence obtained a job with one of the war industries and again they were lucky as Clarence's job was deemed "essential" and he was not sent to war. 

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After the war, Clarence moved more into business for  himself as a manufacturer’s representative (salesperson of a sort) for several  toy and sporting goods companies, a traveling position that took him away from home a lot; Mabel did the accounting for his business, in addition to being a homemaker and doing volunteer work in the community.  She made almost all of her children’s clothes. She did not work for anyone else outside the house, but (according to what I found in The Sandusky Register) she was involved in a lot of charity work and social clubs over the years.  She was often the leader of the Parent-Teachers Association, the local March of Dimes fundraising drive, and the local Camp Fire Girls unit, and a local Girl Scout unit; and later she was a den mother for a cub scout unit. She was a member of the Eastern Star, the Library Fundraising Committee, and the local yacht club decorating committee; and she was also in charge of publicity for the Grand Forest Beach Association and later the Beach wood Cove Association (local homeowner’s associations for the neighborhoods in which they lived). Mabel was also active in the Huron Presbyterian church and for many years was the head of the missionary education committee, and in charge of national missions, and, at least once acted as their representative to the World Council of Churches. Additionally, she entertained as a means to support and further Clarence’s career, and because she enjoyed it; she also planned and hosted beautiful weddings for her oldest four daughters throughout the 1950's.

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In 1958, their youngest daughter, at age 12, had to have surgery that required eight months thereafter in a body cast. While she was in the hospital, the carport was converted into a room to hold a hospital bed so that she could be cared for at home. 

I can remember that Grandma Snyder was an excellent cook, as is my mother, who learned from her.  She sewed and knitted, and she liked to read.  I was told that Mabel and Clarence played cards together (gin and bridge) and played competitive bridge against others. She also golfed, with Clarence, and in women’s tournaments. I found several mentions in the local paper of her winning ladies’ golf tournaments and ladies’ bridge tournaments. 

My own main memories of Grandma Snyder are of her cooking for large family get-togethers, of her with Foo-Foo, her poodle (actually, now I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there were a succession of poodles named Foo-Foo, as Foo-Foo is in almost every memory I have of her and that’s a long time for a poodle  to live), and often of her animatedly involved in a discussion with my father and other family members.

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In or about 1969, when I was about 9, Mabel & Clarence retired to Florida, where they bought a house in Yankeetown Florida near the the Withlacoochee  on one of the inland waterways, a canal. I remember going to visit them several times. I have a vivid memory of an alligator crawling out of the canal into the backyard.  I don’t know if that happened more than once, but once was enough for me! Mabel was initially an active member of the Yankeetown Women’s Club, the Parson’s Memorial Presbyterian Church, and the Order of the Eastern Star.

Unfortunately, Mabel developed dementia in her later years. Now that I know how intelligent and active she was when she was younger, it seems all the more tragic. After awhile it got to the point that Grandpa Snyder, Clarence, could not care for her at home and moved her to the Crystal River Geriatrics Center in about 1982. Clarence died about two years later, and the family decided that it was better that she stay in an environment that she was used to, so she continued to live at Crystal River,  and her daughters and son visited her there. Her Alzheimer’s continued to progress.  She died on June 2, 1990, and was buried in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Findlay, Ohio, next to Clarence.

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I  need to :

I'm still looking for documentation for period between 1940 & death, beyond newspapers (although more newspapers would be nice), to corroborate memories (mine, those of my parents, and of my aunts).

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Census for 1920, 1930 & 1940; City Directories for Findlay Ohio; The Findlay Republican Courier; The Sandusky Register; The Florida Death Index, and the memories of myself, my parents, and my aunts.

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Don, Paul and Clarence Snyder

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Written on the back of the photograph is:
"Don    Paul     Clarence,
upon Don's return from WWII 1943-4
Notice he has a cast on his leg - shot -
Huronia Beach"

Don and Paul are my Grand-uncles and Clarence is my Grandpa.
My grandparents lived in Huron Ohio so this was likely taken near their home. Huronia Beach, Ohio, is on Lake Erie.

The photo must have been taken while Don was on leave, because he served on Bataan in April 1945.

Per the 16 April 1945  Findlay Republican Courier, p. 11: 

"Despite Japanese mortar and sniper fire, Technical Sergeant Don B Snyder, of Findlay, leading a platoon of the 151st Infantry, 38th Division, maintained a continuous supply line to the front in the battle of ZigZag pass on Bataan. There were no beaten trails through the jungle-like thickets but the platoon was able to keep the supplies moving. Tech. Sgt. Snyder is the son of Mr. & Mrs. Philip Snyder and the husband of the former Ardyce Ebersole of Arcadia. He was a well-known boxer prior to entering the Army and has continued winning numerous titles while in service. Overseas 15 months he now holds the Combat Infantry Badge, the American Defense ribbon, and [?] Pacific and Phillipine Liberation ribbons with two campaign stars."

(Newspaperarchive.com)